Thursday, May 28, 2009

A quarter of Maine

Here's something I learned today.

The lighthouse on the Maine quarter is a real place. Not only is it a real place, but we inadvertently visited it on an exploratory drive.

The lighthouse is at Pemaquid Point, a remote coastal location about 45 minutes from our bed & breakfast in Boothbay Harbor. Of course, it's on the Historical Register (I think probably the entire state of Maine is on the register). The perilous point was the site of a couple of late 1600s shipwrecks, whose passengers went on to settle in places like New York and Massachusetts.

Once you get into the lighthouse, which we didn't expect to be able to, since the brochure said it was closed on rainy days, you see this:

Most of the complex is a museum these days, but the 1856 fourth-order Fresnel light is still used to ward ships from impaling themselves. Members of the coast guard arrive every now and then to replace the bulbs. Once at the top of the tower, the viewer sees this:

The view would be grander on a clearer day, but the ocean never changes. Outside the lighthouse tower is another unusual building:

This mid-1800s building once held the lighthouse's bell. These bell towers are now a rarity, and Pemaquid's is one of the last remaining. Hurricane Bob knocked it over in the 90s, but it was repaired.

Whew. I tell you what, Maine is far too easy. Everywhere I turn there's beautiful stuff, weird stuff, ancient stuff. Some of them I can't believe I missed when I was little. Expect to see more.